Were you okay?

Mr. Frosties

Being back on Earth was almost surreal.

Lance had spent more than half of his life on this planet, yet now that he was back, he couldn't feel further from home. He wanted to feel like he was home, but he just... wasn't.

"Lance?" he heard a tired voice call from behind him, he immediately recognized the voice, and his soul soared with glee.

"Diana!" Lance chirped as he stood up and turned around to see his, unsurprisingly, disheveled sister. She immediately pulled Lance into a hug, squeezing him until he almost couldn't breathe.

"Jeez, I know it's been awhile but could you hold off on the almost killing me thing?" Lance laughed, but you could tell he was on the verge of crying.

Diana released the poor boy a bit, "I started driving here as soon as mama told me you got back."

Lance pulled away from the hug in surprise, "Woah, woah, hold up, you drive?"

"Well duh Lance, I'm 25."

"25?" Lance said, he had tried to sound surprised, excited almost, but he just came off as well sad. Sure he had realized he had been gone for a long time, but it never really registered to him how long he was really gone. 11 years had just seemed like another number, but it hit him. Lance had missed out on so much, his sister getting her driving license, graduating high school, possibly even college. His sister that was just a fourteen year old was now a fully grown adult.

"Aw Lance don't look like that, you being here is better than you being dead."

"Yeah." he answered, yet his words didn't match his body language.

"Hey," Diana said, nudging Lance, "wanna go to the boardwalk? It's only 10 pm, Mr.Frosties should still be open."

Lance laughed, "That place is still open?"

"You say that like that place can close."

"My bad, now let's go I want my first ice cream back on Earth to be a good one."

-

The two got their ice creams, and it was just as good as Lance remembered it.

"I really missed the smell of the ocean..." Lance breathed out as he savored his ice cream.

Diana simply nodded, "So what was space like? Were you okay? Did you get taken by aliens or something?"

Lance looked down at his chocolate-dipped-cone.

'Were you okay?' That was the question he had been dreading all day. He had answered 'Are you okay' one too many times but oddly enough, one word, 'were' changed everything.

Because truth be told, he wasn't okay. He was better. He met the love of his life, went on cool amazing space adventures, learned to love himself, and so much other cool stuff- heck he flew a giant lion, through space! Meanwhile, everybody he had left on Earth was heartbroken.

"Well space was pretty cool, that feels like an understatement, awesome, maybe. Also I think I got captured by aliens once or twice but I was fine." Lance said.

"And yeah, I was okay- better, even."

Diana looked out to the ocean, attempting to hide the tears in her eyes "Awesome."